This is the "oh brother" of bad memory...of course referring to the previous administration...the joke idiot from Talen Press planted to ask the get off the hook question, the endless press access days featuring only the conservative talkheads, the open forums and town hall meetings and public campaign stops where you had to swear allegiance before they would let you in...Helen doesn't remember this? Hello Helen. Earth to Helen.

In a BDSM relationship the slave is the one really in control, not the master and this is how the media wants it with Barry. They don't mind serving him, they just want it to be on their terms and they want a safe word.

But, as always, it is good to see your brilliant contribution to the conversation here. I can see why you would denigrate the contributions of others - we don't make up our own words. How can we possibly compete with someone so full of imagination, and other things?

hdhouse - the 2nd best contributor in the history of the internet.

Think about what he wrote - glistening phrases such as "joke idiot" and "oh brother". Man, that is just good writing. When one sees such writing one can only think hdhouse.

I think this is the tipping point re BHO and the press. Maybe the boot licking is over. As for an adversarial relationship a la Bush, that's not going to happen. They have too much of an emotional investment in BO. So there is always going to be a reluctance to press hard on the obvious contradictions in BO's rhetoric and his performance.

I'm wondering when the press is going to notice the huge numbers of jobs lost in the last six months. It's much worse than anything that happened in the Bush administration and we heard a lot more about that.

Yes, it's true that Obama couldn't have prevented it. But it's still happening. I remember the "two million jobs" line about Bush. More jobs than that have been lost on Obama's watch. We hear about the unemployment rate but not the total jobs lost.

Q: Thanks. Why hasn't the administration made more of the U.N. inspectors' report that says Saddam Hussein was dismantling his missile and WMD [weapons of mass destruction] sites before and during the war? And doesn't that, combined with the now-proven al Qaeda link between Iraq -- between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist organization -- unequivocally make the case for going to war in Iraq?

Q: Last Friday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report that shows that Ambassador Joe Wilson lied when he said his wife didn't put him up for the mission to Niger. The British inquiry into their own prewar intelligence yesterday concluded that the President's 16 words ["The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa"] were "well-founded." Doesn't Joe Wilson owe the President and America an apology for his deception and his own intelligence failure?

Helen Thomas is a little late. The MSM has been mainly if not exclusively purveyors of a liberal mindset and agenda for at least 40 years. It has not been presenting both sides of the story, but omitting anything that did not fit its viewpoint.

That is, they have been propagandists for the left, and therefore functioned as champions of the Democrats and foes of the GOP. No one seriously disputes this any longer.

So it's far too late to be demanding journalistic independence when the Administration assumes -correctly- that you would have been cheerleaders for the cause anyway, so the next step -nationalization of the press by stagecraft- would be readily complied with by the press.

They sold their birthright for a mess of pottage long ago.

Good luck getting it back from your new puppeteer. Face it, you're PRAVDA, and he's Stalin. Enjoy your new job, same as the old one.

I've never, ever taken the White House press corps seriously. Nothing of importance ever happens at a press conference. I've always taken in for granted that the President or the press secretary or whoever won't say anything that they don't want us to hear. It's always been managed. Geez, it's always happening in a room built for the purpose. Just because there are a lot of cameras doesn't mean we need to watch.

Q: Thanks. Why hasn't the administration made more of the U.N. inspectors' report that says Saddam Hussein was dismantling his missile and WMD [weapons of mass destruction] sites before and during the war?

Great question, but I think Senator Clinton can answer that better.

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." -- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

Yea for Helen! It seems she’s the only actual reporter in the room. Maybe this will wake up the so-called journalists and question this administration as they should. While it’s not unprecedented that an administration would try to push the envelope as far as controlling the press goes, the press has been just as culpable. They’ve been rolling over for a very, very long time. If it takes an old bat like Helen to whip everyone back in to shape (both sides), I’m all for it.

Yea, nobody will ever control the press the way the Bush did. He had them eating out of his hand for 8 years. They loooooved him! I bet most of them even voted for him both times. They would never admit it, but you could tell.

Helen Thomas is quite right. One way to break this coziness up is for reporters to refuse to ask a question when called upon. Or they could yield their chance to some random person.

The Fourth Estate -- what's left of them -- must fill the role the Chicago Tribune proclaimed on its editorial page forever:

to furnish that vital check upon government which no constitution can.

But the lapdog role is not limited to Democratic Presidencies. One theory how "Jeff Gannon" was able to escape detection for so long was that professional journalists were in the habit of asking sycophantic softball questions.

Oh no garage, that can't be. Hillary is the smartest woman on t he face of the earth and she couldn't have been wrong on such a very very important issue like that. She could not have possibly made such an error that resulted in her crucial vote to send our childrens in uniform into harms way. I mean not with the sage counsel of her very much smarter husband, who of course was President and had access to the same kind of intelligence the Bushitler had.

No I can't believe Hillary could be wrong. Such a thought shakes the very core of my being.

"For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors."

The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee.

Nothing takes away this fact: Obama's is the WORST in openness and honesty of ANY modern Presidency.

Helen Thomas is right. And no attempt to refocus the discussion away from that fact can change that fact one bit.

With Obama's negatives rising - and a Democrat 60 seat Senate - there are absolutely NO excuses left for failure from the Democrats going forward.

Yet, why do I, just as the polls show the majority of Americans more and more dissatisfied with the programs and policies of Obama and this Congress - have so little hope that the Dems will succeed in actually fixing the country's problems?

Is it just too uncomfortable to believe that the new socialist President wants to treat the press like they do in banana republics, so you have to bring up the fact that some of the WMD claims were errors but not lies?

"Have you emailed your question today?" snarkYou know things are bad when Helen Thomas says the White House is so far from open and transparent that it is shocking - that it is the PATTERN of staging the events with preselected people and questions that is the problem. Maybe Journalism is not dead after all - questions are starting to be asked, and truths are starting to be told.

The koolaid is wearing off - look at the faces of the OTHER reporters in that room, no one there is happy with what is going on.

Gibbs tries to wiggle out of it - saying how would we do that? and Thomas lays it out there for the world to see "By calling reporters the night before."

Ok nuthouse, let me be serious for a second and explain this in a way even a look like you can understand.

Bush was bad, evil, the anti-christ and the anti-satan. Evil genius and dumbest man on the planet all rolled into one. We got that because twats like you reminded all of us every single day for 8 years.

Obama is not Bush. Obama ran the opposite of everything Bush stood for. HOPE AND CHANGE we can all believe in. I’m sure you saw the bumper stickers and the Che-like campaign posters. Obama was bringing in a new era of government and complete and total transparency. Obama was the modern day Cicero and could cause ladies to faint with his oratory.So don’t you see how childish it is to use Bush did it too as a defense? Aren’t you guys supposed to be the grown ups? Isn’t that what you kept telling us?

No prob, and I like to remind those Noble Eagles who were completely wrong, who called the only people who were right (Dirty Hippies), traitors, just how wrong they were.

Very well. I just wish you Dirty Hippies were around to do the same when your boy Bill was bombing the piss out of Iraq for those non-existant WMDs and Serbia for whatever reason he had that week but consistency is never a liberal strongpoint.

Fascinating reading the comments from HD and Garage...apparently the fact that Bush also used planted questions justifies them doing so as well. For those of you parents out there, would you accept this "Johnny does it too!" excuse from your kids?

I was particularly amused by Garage's atempts to explain away Hillary(!)'s comments regarding WMD. Whether or not she was mistaken is no longer relevant, but if we are to believe that she actually meant what she said at the time (always a risky venture with a Clinton), then why is it so hard to believe that Bush did as well? Yet the script from the Left is that Bush must have lied, but Hillary(!) was 'mistaken'...

I don't hold Democrats as anything close to a standard for truth and probity (actually I don't hold any politicians as a viable standard for those things, but the Dems least of all), but unless you decide to have two standards to evaluate their actions (and other than DTL, I cannot imagine anyone here delusional enough to do that), then it Bush was wrong to use planted questions/correspondents, obviously Obama was/is as well. In a like sense, if Hillary(!) gets the benefit of the doubt, so should Bush...

Finally, regarding Helen Thomas. An earlier commenter says it best...a stopped clock is right twice a day, and this was her time. I despise her, but give her credit where it is due (consistent standards you see...), she was right on this one...

Hoosier and Pogo *just* discover the sleazy relationship between elite Beltway journalistic institutions and occupants of the White House who use them for messaging. And now they're upset! There's been a group of people talking about this very thing for a long time, a group of bloggers, it will come to me in a minute....

Hoosier and Pogo *just* discover the sleazy relationship between elite Beltway journalistic institutions and occupants of the White House who use them for messaging. And now they're upset!

Yes garage. Prior to Obama I was always a huge huge fan of the main stream media and journalists. I remember all those softball puff pieces that were written about the Bush administration and didn't think anything of it. in fact, I wondered how it was possible Bush could have such a low approval rating having the press in his back pocket like that.

The attitude of Gibbs is not funny. He is smiling alright like his Supreme Leader does at these times. But his message is the same as Nikita Khruschev's answer to the american press asking him a question, which was, "THAT QUESTION DOES NOT ARISE!" Whenever you hear that reply from either a Republican or from a Democratic-Marxist you are, at that moment in time, under the thumb of a Dictatorship. Their information being given to us is no longer subject to any challenge...the line of BS is what it is and no other speech shall take place in the reporting media or else. This is not funny at all.

Thomas hitting the media lapdogs of Obama - the primary target - by way of saying to Gibbs that even Nixon didn't try to control the media as his pets was rhetorically brilliant. Make no mistake. Yelling at Gibbs about getting press to whore out to Obama was like an owner going to the football teams loser's locker room and yelling at the coach that his deficiencies made the players look like gutless little quitting bitches..

Adding "even Nixon didn't do this", was icing on the cake. Because "standing up to Nixon", 35-40 years ago is taught to journalists as their "greatest moment". And Thomas was saying that this generation of Obama whores might have easily been Nixon's whores if they had been around in Nixon's day, and Nixon had tried...

He learned the technique from the best, watching the Bush White House for years (or does the name, 'Jeff Gannon' not ring a bell?)

Eli, just like garage and nuthouse show the true colors of the left.

I really wish one of you would have the balls to just admit you have no problem with hypocrisy as long as your guy is in charge. Hell I'd at least have some respect for that. Will one of you just admit that HOPE AND CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN was nothing more than a bullshit theme to get the dumbass vote? Eli want to take a crack at that one? How do you have Hope and Change when taking lessons from the Bushhitler?

Seriously I thought you liberals were supposed to be the noble ones. The ones who were going to change the way things are done in DC. Tell me honestly, did you really believe all he shit Obama was shoveling down your throats or did you knowingly nod and smile knowing he'll beat that old white haired sonofabitch and nothing will change but that's ok because Obama is our sonofabitch.

Fen's repeated comment is so appropos with you guys. The left doesn't really believe in the things it says.

I wonder, what does Gibbs think when he has to tell lie after lie? What a difficult job he has. Everything that Bark Obama has said, he has done the opposite, and Gibbs has to provide an answer why. What an impossible task. Maybe he has no soul.

Tell me honestly, did you really believe all he shit Obama was shoveling down your throat

In fairness, at least it was delivered well, and he had a grasp of actual policies and could debate them, and we didn't fall for what a former beauty queen from Alaska with an IQ of 15 was shoveling. "You can't blink Charleeeeee, you can't blink".

When Obama planted Pitney at the previous photo-op, I said it was a huge strategic blunder on his part.

I was right, and Helen Thomas is proof.

What I said at the time was:

Like a married couple when one cheats on the other, they may be able to move on but it's never really forgotten. The level of trust will never again be what it was, and occasionally it will rear its ugly head from time to time.

The White House press corps and Obama have by no means ended their marriage, but it's never going to be quite the same again.

Helen Thomas a bat-guano, crazy Leftist - and unapologetically so. But every single person sitting in that room has one thing in common regardless of what news organization they work for: a huge ego.

Gibbs is a smarmy, condescending jerk. The everpresent smirk on his face is an annoyance. Think about being one of those "journalists" in the audience for a second:

You worked your whole career to get here. You scratched. You clawed. You piled up the dead carcasses of your colleagues and climbed over them to earn your seat. Being a member of the White House press corps is possibly one of the most prestigious jobs in your field.

Now this guy comes along and he's trying to play you for a fool. He's laughing at you to your face. He thinks so little of your accomplishments that he's going to bring some nobody in here who hasn't "earned his stripes" and usurp you. How dare this smug jackass think he's going to get away with it?

On one level or another, that's what's going on the mind of every single reporter there. They're still struggling with their internal conflict over their agreement with the Leftist politics, but every once in a while the ego is going to win the battle.

They know that they've been being fed pablum. But as long as Obama respected them, they felt important. But he's made it clear that he doesn't, so now there's a little less desire to cover up his blunders. A little less enthusiasm for the lies and bull-hockey.

Obama has lost a net four points in his approval ratings since he planted Pitney. This is despite the fact that Iran has somewhat faded from the front pages, and he has held an infomercial and his fraudulent "town hall" since then. He should have gone up, but his approval is going down. Why?

Because over the last week, you're starting to see subtly here and there in the news reports, some skepticism over the same lies that the media has been enthusiastically reprinting for more than a year. They're not just swallowing it whole any more.

Obama bruised their egos because he and his cronies are used to being the big fish in Chicago's small pond where there were no sufficiently-sized egos to deal with. They are not prepared to treat the press with the kid gloves they demand, and Gibbs' demeanor yesterday was a clear illustration that they have no plan to change that any time soon.

Watch the press reports get more and more hostile as time goes on unless Obama and Gibbs reverse course on their treatment of the press. Watch Obama's numbers continue to slide as the press stops blindly rolling over every time he issues a command.

Politics is a game these people play, but their ego is their life. Obama's going to find out what it's like when you're not the only narcissist in the room. And as Bush readily discovered: it's never a good idea to pick a fight with a guy who buys ink by the barrel.

"In fairness, at least it was delivered well, and he had a grasp of actual policies and could debate them, and we didn't fall for what a former beauty queen from Alaska with an IQ of 15 was shoveling. "You can't blink Charleeeeee, you can't blink".

Falling for the multiple lies of Obama about how he would govern as a fiscal conservative, reverse all of Bush's policies, and have an open and transparent government doesn't exactly make you Mensa material. You really should examine your own gullibility before you go insulting someone else's intelligence.

Multiple commenters tried to say that Obama was lying when he said these things. You denied it every time. You hurled insults at those who had their eyes open. And here we are six months later, and he has done pretty much every single thing you were told he would do and still you cling to illusions about your own cognitive abilities?

Here's a video I made the day before the townhall and added as a reply to BHO's video. The reader might want to compare me actually doing something that could have been effective if I'd gotten some help vs. others who simply wait for something to happen and then whine about it.

Tip for next time: consider actually doing something rather than just grousing in an echo chamber afterwards.

In fairness, at least it was delivered well, and he had a grasp of actual policies and could debate them, and we didn't fall for what a former beauty queen from Alaska with an IQ of 15 was shoveling.

Well garage I guess that's as close as you can bring yourself to just admitting that being a hypocrite is fine as long as your boy is in charge. I mean its what I always figured you were about but it's nice to see the facade come down.

As for IQ, that's really funny because I was shocked that the intelligent, articulate and clean Obama actually thought they speak Austrian in Austria. That was really a hoot. I suppose he thinks they speak Mexican down in Mexico too. Yeah that Palin is a real maroon, ya'betcha garage! She probably thinks they speak Russian in Russia!

Beautiful. And agree, the reference to Nixon raises this to sublimity. No more perfect rebuttal could be invented to those taking the 'Bush did it too' line, or more absurdly suggesting 'Bush was worse' in terms of media manipulation. Here's Helen Thomas-- no 'wingnut' she, to say the least, but a journalist whose anti-Bush credentials (and so, as it were, liberal/progressive bona fides) rival anyone's on the planet-- observing that in this respect, the Obama administration is, scandalously, not just far worse than *Bush*, but worse than ***Nixon***! It's positively delicious.

And just such a relief, to hear the patently obvious start to be acknowledged by MSM journalists themselves. Even if it's just 1 or 2 of them. It's reassuring, in general, whenever I see some of the harsh light of reality can still get through the Obama Twilight Zone. And not just among us 'wingnuts'.

I love the way the left, when they get caught with their pants down, tries to deflect the blame back onto the juvenile argument....."neener neeener neener, Bush did it too so that make it ok". It wasn't right when previous administrations manipulated the media and it isn't right now. The difference is that the media is the one getting screwed with no flowers, no candy and being taken totally for granted.

It reminds me of grudge fucking. Never really solves the original problem.

I wish I could be as positive as you are-but when Republicans can't even buy an ad on ABC to try to get the counter argument across you have a huge problem.

{The Networks have a hell of a lot more viewers than the cables.}

Add to that that Wal-Mart sees the writing on the wall, that they have to co-operate with this Administration because of the vast amount of power they have acquired over the economy and it is really, really over for a viable two party system in America.

He's not a troll. Just a liar and a child. An adult stands behind what he says and either defends it or apologizes when he's wrong.

garage is taking the child's way out by trying to pretend he never said an ill word to a Republican throughout the entire election cycle.

His own comments in this thread show the quality of his discourse. If anyone seriously believes that he was some kind of model citizen in not attacking conservatives during that time in the same manner that he does day in and day out on this blog, then I've got oceanfront real estate in Arizona that I'm willing to let go real cheap. Just drop me an e-mail, and we can talk about the price.

This is my final comment on the subject. We were talking about Obama's outsized ego and how it's destroying his relationship with the press. Let's get back to that.

You're suggesting that I didn't know Obama was a politician or something like that?

Of course I know that. He's a politician who I happen to agree with, in fact as I just wrote yesterday Obama was the best choice available last year, and so I supported him for President.

So in other words you agree that his hope and change bullshit was just that and he's just another politician who'll mouth platitudes about transparency but not really do it and that he'll use the same dirty techniques that Bush did but that's ok because you just happen to agree with his platform?

He's not a troll. Just a liar and a child. An adult stands behind what he says and either defends it or apologizes when he's wrong.

garage was always a Hillary supporter and did his share of badmouthing The One right up to the point the very junior Senator from Illinois kicked her big ass back to New York and then threw her a bone to be SoS and placate her followers. It must have worked because garage now readily genuflects at the altar of Obama and backs up his every play.

But its not just garage's level of discourse, its all of them who resort to the third grade defense of 'Bush did it too'. Like I said before, I thought they were the grownups, and that Obama really was going to be transparent and change and be not like Bush. But then garage and Eli have clearly stated that they have no problem with the hypocrisy because they agree with Obama so its ok. Eli knew he was a pol but he's a pol he agrees with. Garage says he delivered his bullshit much better than that idiot Palin so there.

I'm sure there are some liberals out there that really are aghast that Obama would do this but I don't think they post here.

So I see Jim either cannot google [even after I gave him a good head start], or he cannot find the links of me stating something he said I stated. That's makes him charitably put "internet challenged", or dishonest.

"In fairness, at least it was delivered well, and he had a grasp of actual policies and could debate them, and we didn't fall for what a former beauty queen from Alaska with an IQ of 15 was shoveling."

Obama wasn't running against Palin. The proper comparison to Palin would be Biden. Don't think you want to go there. And to try to keep things on topic, I'll note that Obama's supposed ability to debate issues and policies counts very little when the media go balls-to-the-wall to prevent you from finding out what his positions actually are and what they mean. Man on the street wants to know more about this spreading of the wealth. The "journalists" (as well as instruments of government) immediately turn on man on the street, rather than asking whether man on the street might possibly be on to something. I knew he was some flavor of Marxist (more influenced by Marx than necessarily a firm believer in all of his ideas) for some time because I'm literate and could understand what he was actually saying. The woefully uneducated people we refer to as "journalists" either saw it too and didn't care (because they like the idea of a Marxist utopia and don't seem to have any knowledge of their past track records), or simply didn't make the connection because they think Marx was the guy that would give you money if you said the secret word.

Gibbs is white. He's fair game. The press corps is working off their frustrations while putting on a little show for us.

If the "One" were to enter the room, they'd come to heel immediately. Y'see it's that white guilt thing. Obama's used it to cast a spell over his liberal critics. It doesn't work with us cantankerous right-wing rednecks; but that doesn't matter because we no longer matter.

If you live in a city where 50% of churchgoers are Presbyterian and there are 10 Presbyterian churches, and 50% of churchgoers are Catholic and there is one Catholic church, which of these eleven churches is most likely to have the highest attendance?

But then garage and Eli have clearly stated that they have no problem with the hypocrisy because they agree with Obama so its ok. Eli knew he was a pol but he's a pol he agrees with

Hoosier, hypocrisy is their middle name. They can't help it. Dishonesty is a basic liberla virtue - they actually admire the skillful use of it.

So, don't waste your breath on this one, Hoosier - they lost this point - that Obama is the worst administration ever on openeness and dishonesty. - the case is closed and they know it. They are pooping in their pants a bit more everyday as they look at the polls and see that the Dems going slowly but steadily down. Dems are fully in charge of the government but they aren't going to come close to "fixing" anything, and they've run out of the Clinton smoke and mirrors tricks - everyone knows them now.

That's why they have nothing else to do except "uh, let me direct your attention over here". Don't let them get you worked up. Rack this win up as an easy one.

I admit I despised Helen to the Bush years. I have new found respect for her now though.

I went to the cafe today and ordered my fabulous salad with kohlrabi batons, natch-to go. A guy sitting at his computer couldn't stop staring at me. I totally butched it up and acted all mysterious. He actually followed me out of the cafe. He wasn't hot enough though so I didn't do him.

madawaskan: I agree, & wouldn't say I'm feeling positive at all. On the contrary... more like deeply anxious, when I think of the radical, large-scale, systemic transformations we're likely to see-- have started to see-- under this administration, with effects we might take decades to recover from.... some of which, scarily, are likely to be *irreversible*. But little things like this... I wouldn't say they're heartening, even... but like I said, provide some measure of relief to the feeling of vertigo, the creepiness of what really feels sometimes like living in a Twilight Zone (the perpetual hosannas to the Obamas in MSM-land, the practice of journalism become hagiography or fan worship... all while I'm repeatedly shocked, disturbed, disgusted, & frightened by the actions of this administration & all-but-unstoppable Dem congress, which go largely unquestioned or unchallenged or unpursued by the fourth estate).

Darcy, sadly, too often in this blog's discussions, disagreeing robustly with the majority results in being called a troll. There are very, very few actual trolls here, and while hardly anyone ever mentions it, at least one is a conservative commenter. It sucks that a heated debate almost always results in someone yelling "Troll!" just because they're frustrated with the way the discussion is going.

Darcy, sadly, too often in this blog's discussions, disagreeing robustly with the majority results in being called a troll.

Beth

No one called garage a troll.

I think the frustration is that when a topic such as this comes up, the standard Obama defense is the fall back 'Well Bush did it too!' That may not be trollish but its certainly childish.

The conservative usual suspects who comment here rarely followed Bush in lockstep and showed little reluctance in backing him when he fucked up. On the other hand every response to Pitney was 'Bush did it too'. Hell my 11 year old doesn't even use that he did it too exuse anymore. If that's the response then further discussion is pretty much pissing into the wind.

I jerked off to a website of military guys, real ones, doing it. The site has been busted before but he is still cranking out bi weekly updates, thank God.

The site shows the guys diving and horsing around before they do it and my gaydar would pick up if the guys weren't straighties. They do cannonballs and flips and shit like that. Gay men couldn't do those things, unless they were Greg Loooseanus.

Less than halfway through this thread, I've got a list of insulting adjectives from various sides - obambi, dingbat, moonbat (oops, that one's not here, but hold onto it, it crops up all the time), Regime (y'all HATED it when we called it the Bush Regime), pimps, prostitutes, twats...

So garage hauls out wingnut regularly? So what?

People throw around minor insults. It doesn't discredit them, generally. Learn to roll with these things.

My other jerky jerky website is black thugs, that just got out of prison, doing it.

I also enjoy Shower Cam websites. Total infringement on people but it is hot. Lots of towel snapping and comparing hog size and peeing in shower, seeing who's stream goes farther. Love that shit.

When viewing the Shower Cam websites I always think of the trouble, determination and accuracy that it takes to get the camera at the right place. Many professionals around this country are planting cameras in shower rooms and then posting it on the web. What is this world coming to?

Falling for the multiple lies of Obama about how he would govern as a fiscal conservative, reverse all of Bush's policies, and have an open and transparent government doesn't exactly make you Mensa material. You really should examine your own gullibility before you go insulting someone else's intelligence.

Multiple commenters tried to say that Obama was lying when he said these things. You denied it every time. You hurled insults at those who had their eyes open. And here we are six months later, and he has done pretty much every single thing you were told he would do and still you cling to illusions about your own cognitive abilities?

Someone has a beam stuck in their eye...

To which garage responded that he had never done any such thing: which was a transparent lie.

I fully understand that insults are part of the discourse, and I won't claim that I haven't issued my own fair share of them. I don't think anyone here could claim any such thing.

It's not the insult that's the issue, it's the lying about it.

Where I come from, if you're "man enough" to say something, then you need to be "man enough" to back it up or - if you realize that you were wrong - be man enough to admit that you were.

Integrity matters. Garage chose to surrender his. That was his choice.

yashu said... Beautiful. And agree, the reference to Nixon raises this to sublimity.

Oh, its beautiful indeed, because what Thomas was really doing by slamming Gibbs was slamming the present generation of White House press..

1. "You've tried and succeeded in making (some of these younger whippersnapper journalists) your bitches.2. Nixon didn't try.3. (If these younger whippersnappers had been around instead of us more courageous professional journalists of my generation, Nixon would have had these gutless bitches eating crumbs from his proffered palm).And the greatest moment in journalism was when showed our independence and stood up to Nixon 40 years ago (while still wearing theit Camelot kneepads).

I'm still holding out hope that he'll drift on over to the conservative side someday, lol. C'mon, garage!

I'm not, Darcy. I remember reading something in the Book of Revelation about the 7th seal, rivers and seas turning to blood, plagues of locusts and garage mahal swearing his alliegence to the Republican Party.

With all the bad weather I, nor have any of my sisters, been able to make our premeire at the beach.

This is quite devastating and harmful to our health. We did not bust our butts all winter in the gym to be wearing raincoats and golashes. Now is the time to whip it off and we can't. This is very upsetting.

So what we have here is a bunch of hard, defined bodies languishing under clothes.

Gay marriage is one thing but not getting to the beach in June is an entirely different and more upsetting issue.

"In other words the businesses that have went under but have not been reported yet to the bureau."

There's still the automaker bankruptcies, the dealerships they closed, the state and local government layoffs to balance their budgets, and the inevitable daisy chain of layoffs that will lead to which haven't yet entered the picture.

In addition, many businesses and governments are cutting back workweeks rather than laying people off (saves paying the unemployment or severance packages). The latest reports are that the average workweek is now down to 33 hours per week.

Remember all the complaints from the media about "McJobs" and the "underemployed" and "discouraged workers" under the Bush administration and how the unemployment numbers never accounted for them?

Gee. I wonder what could possibly have happened in the last year to make all of those stories stop being front page news all of a sudden?

I am fortunate that I work in an industry that is hiring. My employer is opening two new facilities and we are hiring 200 people between now and the end of this year and another 500 next year.

Also, the part of the country I now live is a Biotech haven and most all of the Biotech companies are hiring for similar positions. The question for candidates, with the right experience, is do you want to work in a start up or a large established company. I am grateful. I also have a sterling personality and an ass you can bounce quarters off off and as a result I am in high demand. I get calls daily from recruiters about jobs at other companies.

But I do feel bad about everyone else in this economy.

Also compensation in biotech is amazing. We are hiring Facilities people, who cGMP experience at 100k. Not bad for most who don't have a college education. They do need to have a minimum of 7 years of biotech facilities experience though.

"Also, the part of the country I now live is a Biotech haven and most all of the Biotech companies are hiring for similar positions."

You are indeed fortunate to have chosen a growth field, but you better hope that ObamaCare doesn't pass.

The reason venture capitalists take chances on biotech companies is that they hope to reap a windfall when the drugs or technologies that they develop hit the market.

Between the government price controls and Obama's stated preference for "tried and true" (which is what "best practices" is code for) over costly, experimental treatment is going to kill the biotech sector.

If there's no reward, then no one will take the risk. And if the only ones who will be able to afford the treatments that are being developed are the wealthy like Obama and Kennedy, then there won't be a big enough market to support a biotech industry any larger than a small fraction of its current size.

It's another one of those "unintended consequences" of Leftist policy-making.

You are correct Mada-the numbers are going to be very ugly next month.

From all of the forecasts I have read and I read them voraciously nightly the entire year is going to be pretty bad.

I don't anticipate any turnaround until Q1 2010, and that is still a big if. I wouldn't be surprised if Q1 isn't as ugly but still not great.

What I do want to know, and I have a hard time finding, is where the stimulus jobs are. Raw data, numbers of hires as a result of the stimulus package.

I have read about all the "shovel made" projects but we still don't know numbers of people those projects are putting people to work. Also, these projects are a temporary fix and once completed those employees will be going on unemployment.

It may be because June is the last month of the govt's fiscal year? So they assume if a business has not filed an employment report in the last 2-3 Qtrs of a fiscal year, its employees now get counted as part of job losses ?

We have also been hit because the stock market in general has been down.

We are very fortunate now though because we are hiring and are revenues are up and expenses are down.

As far as Obamacare we are an International Company and a majority of the countries we work with have some sort of Health Care provided to their citizens by the government. We have been able to work with all the countries to get patients on product. We have high powered lobbyist and even all the liberal Massachusetts democrats are not going to do anything to harm their biotech industry. Biotech in this state is in the pocket of everyone of the politicians.

It's called the birth/death adjustment, but the author also discusses other inaccuracies of the unemployment rate and how it is vastly understating the current state of employment in this country. I only scanned through it quickly, but it seems pretty good to me.

A lack of pity for the whitehouse press corps is to be expected since these reporters attacked in glee as Bush-Hitler was being condemned for managing the news. Why Bush's last Press Secretary "came-out" and joined them in and exposing the sex, lies and videotape methods of the Bush-hitler White House operatives. But still this repoter gang could always freely go after Bush for his crimes against jounalism. They are genuinely stymied now for the first time in their lives. The question becomes when will the first White House Reporters Tea Party begin? It's the reporter's ox getting gored now and not the Republican's.

Gosh. That's 482 results for the use of the word "wingnut" alone. But that's not intended as an insult, right? .

Jim needs another google tutorial! Those results (if you bothered to click any) don't necessarily mean I was the commentor typing the word "wingnut". 2 of the 10 links on the first page were me however. Anyways, still no links Jim of me stating what you said I stated. Just a small sorry and we can move on. C'mon! I don't hold grudges.

He learned the technique from the best, watching the Bush White House for years..."

I just...

It amazes me. The one thing that *everyone* agreed that Bush totally sucked at... EVERYONE... if they hated the BushHitler or thought he was something on the ordinary side of Satan and likely right at least some of the times... what everyone agreed on for certain was that his media handling sucked.

What I do want to know, and I have a hard time finding, is where the stimulus jobs are. Raw data, numbers of hires as a result of the stimulus package.

No such thing exists.

The WH put out a report touting 150,000 jobs attributable to the stimulus bill, but nowhere do they show any math to back it up. I was in PR long enough to know that if the numbers work for you, you put them right up front, since numbers are extremely persuasive. So their absence means they've got nothing but anecdotal evidence and praise from mayors, etc. who have been bought off by the selfsame money.

In reading through the state-by-state accounts in the WH document, you get the impression that many of the 150,000 jobs haven't started yet -- they're just budgeted for projects that are probably a year or more away. Weasel words are all over it.

Obama is going to try hard to campaign on his own made-up stimulus numbers in the mid-term elections. The GOP will point to some ungodly unemployment number, a traditional measure, and Obama will reply, "Yes, but I created x million jobs." And the press will say, "yeah he did."